Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

John2 i think the only difference between us is timing i think the earliest church was in harmony then got disrupted very early with differences among various groupings Was the earliest church ever in harmony? Doesn't Jesus complain about his followers' lack of faith and understanding? And don't th...

I think it's more likely by the time of Acts the author wanted to present Paul and Nazarenes as grudgingly accepting each other (it's hardly presented as being without difficulty). But originally they didn't. But I think the NT letters "present Paul and Nazarenes as grudgingly accepting each other"...

I'm inclined nowadays to see the Catholic epistles as being "Nazarene," i.e., as genuine letters of the Nazarene leaders James, Peter and John, and that the author of Acts was thus a Nazarene or pro-Nazarene and that Acts serves as a record of the Nazarene position (pro-Jewish Torah observance and ...

Ben wrote n the OP: I admit, I rather like the idea that Acts was composed or compiled as a narrative commentary to the Catholic and Pauline letter collections (probably not including Jude yet in the former nor possibly Hebrews in the latter). The heresiologists inform us that various groups emphasi...

John2 yes this description is what i find problematic Jesus is 'pro-Torah observant' - but what does that actually mean? I think in the context of Christianity it doesn't give sufficient information If you knew nothing else about Jesus and the history of Christianity you'd think the phrase would me...

There were/are "righteous Gentiles" and requirements for Gentiles in Judaism, but it doesn't necessarily follow that Jesus had a "Pauline style view on gentile converts." Paul said he did not receive his gospel to the Gentiles "from any man, not was I taught it" (Gal. 1:12), but by a revelation he ...

John2, What I'm trying to suggest isn't that Jesus was ignoring the purity laws, not at all I'm thinking he had a less stringent attitude to them compared to his contemporaries The reason I think this is because he is portrayed in gospels as sometimes being accused of breaking these, and at other t...

But since Jesus was pro-sacrifice (Mt. 5:23-24) and Christians offered sacrifices (Acts 21) I think he and the original Christians paid as much attention to ritual purity as they did to the rest of the Torah. Jesus let the woman of the city wash his feet with her hair,drank from the same cup as a S...

Getting back to 1 Cor. 15:3-11, it seems simpler to suppose it is original given that it is not only in keeping with the acceptance of Paul by Nazarenes but also with 1 Peter (which I think is genuine and similarly preaches that Jesus "died for our sins"). It seems overly complicated to suppose that...

John2, ah indeed, my working assumption is the original Jewish Christian doctrine would have been something like Torah and Jewish customs observance for Jews - maybe without the additional requirements built around it, without so much attention to ritual purity as evidenced by Jesus's words on this...